Site editor · September 29, 2026
Source-based correction; AI-assisted draft, human review pending
lore+30-4
| West of the Grey Mountains, between deep forest and grey ocean, lies Bretonnia: a kingdom built in the shape of a lance. It was forged more than a thousand years ago, when Gilles le Breton and his Grail Companions broke the greenskin tides in twelve great battles and bound the feuding dukedoms into one realm beneath one crown. From that age of legend Bretonnia has changed astonishingly little. It remains a land of pennanted castles, tourney fields, and sworn oaths, where disputes are settled by the lance, virtue is measured against the Chivalric Code, and every noble son dreams of dying famously rather than living quietly. |
| The Kingdom of Bretonnia is a human realm whose armies and stories revolve around knightly service, the Lady of the Lake and the quest for the Grail. It is also a society in which noble cavalry depends on the labour and military service of commoners. Both sides belong in an account of the faction: the heraldic spectacle is not the whole army.[1][2] |
| ··· |
| Above king and code alike stands the Lady of the Lake, the veiled goddess who rose from the waters to bless Gilles and has held the kingdom's soul ever since. Her Grail is Bretonnia's holiest mystery: knights who forsake everything to quest for it either perish on the road or return transfigured, and none who drink will speak of what they saw. Her damsels are the mystery's price: fay-touched daughters taken from their families as children and returned years later as ageless, uncanny prophetesses. What the Lady truly is, where her otherworld lies, what becomes of the children she claims: Bretonnia does not ask. In Bretonnia, faith is a form of courtesy. |
| ## The Lady, the Grail and the knightly ideal |
| ··· |
| The splendor rests on mud. Nine of every ten Bretonnians are peasants, bound to the land and to lords they may never look in the eye, owing their masters labor, harvest, and sons. Peasant hands raise the castles, fletch the arrows, drive the baggage trains, and dig the graves after every glorious charge. The knighthood holds this to be the natural order (protection traded for toil, as the Lady ordained), and from the castle battlements the bargain does look fair. It looks rather different from the bottom of a plow furrow. |
| The official Old World Almanack traces the kingdom's founding to Gilles le Breton. His encounter with the Lady and the Grail provides the model later knights seek to follow. The Code Chivalric gives that ideal a formal expression. The same account describes the mysterious Green Knight as a figure who tests Questing Knights and aids Bretonnia in times of need.[1] |
| ··· |
| Yet it would be a mistake to see Bretonnia as mere pageantry over rot, for chivalry is a real power in the world. It sends lone riders against dragons and holds shieldless peasant lines steady beside them; it has broken invasions that swallowed stronger realms whole. Honor is Bretonnia's shield, and honor is its blindfold. The same code that makes a Bretonnian knight the finest heavy cavalryman in the Old World forbids him to question the tithe of daughters, the hunger in the villages, or the true cost of a legend. Bretonnia rides out anyway, banners bright against the dark, refusing to look down. |
| The article presents several explanations for the Green Knight's identity. A reference should retain that uncertainty rather than converting one reported possibility into a settled answer. Likewise, descriptions of a knight's ideal do not establish that every noble consistently lives up to it. |
| ## Dukedoms and heraldry |
| The Old World development diary describes dukes ruling the kingdom's fourteen dukedoms, with barons beneath them. It also explains a practical painting option: troops serving a regional lord can share elements of that lord's heraldry. Elite knights may instead display individual devices.[3] |
| For a hobby project, this means a visually coherent army need not give every ordinary knight an entirely unrelated colour scheme. You can plan a common palette and reserve individualized heraldry for selected figures. This is a project-planning application of the published examples, not a rule requiring a particular painted scheme. |
| ## Knights and the supporting army |
| Bretonnia's tabletop identity prominently features knights, but the official range introduction also emphasizes peasant soldiers. The nobility cannot supply the whole army on its own. Infantry and supporting elements belong beside mounted warriors when understanding what the force represents.[2] |
| When looking through the units below, distinguish a unit's fictional social role from its current game role. A description such as “peasant levy” explains who the fighters are; it does not tell you their present points, restrictions or best use in a particular match. |
| ## Keep the historical period in view |
| Warhammer: The Old World takes place in an earlier period than the final era of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The Almanack explicitly places its account in the year 2276 of the Imperial Calendar, with the Duke of Brionne riding to aid a Bretonnian border fortress against the Tomb Kings.[1] Preserve that date when connecting this introduction to other parts of the setting. |
| Related character entries may cover figures from the wider history of Bretonnia. Their presence in a reference roster does not assert that they are alive, ruling or legally playable at the same moment. Check the publication and period attached to a claim; where a page lacks that context, a focused correction is valuable. |
| ## Further reading and play |
| Start with the Almanack for setting context and the development diary for heraldry. Use the [rules-checking guide](/guides/check-current-warhammer-rules) to find current game documents. This overview does not reproduce army rules or promise that an older preview remains valid. |
| [1] Old World Almanack: Discover Bretonnia, a Land of Chivalry and Honour (27 December 2023). |
| [2] Warhammer Day Preview: The Kingdom of Bretonnia Revealed (14 October 2023). |
| [3] Old World Development Diary: On Bases and the Barons of Bretonnia (14 April 2023). |